No two ways about it -doublenickel

This is a difficult time.

Bipolar diagnosis or NO Bipolar diagnosis anyone would be in a pretty tough position as well just like you are right now.

The aftermath of any relationship ending is a tough one to swallow.

And yes, anyone would be asking:

"Is it because of this? Or that? Or what? And if it was because of this - can I possibly have another relationship again or is this beyond hopeless for any future prospects?

This is called Intrusive Thoughts.

"Am I doomed to never have another relationship because of my Bipolar? Is there ever any hope? I mean look how badly this one ended!" says doublenickel.

So I just wanted to say.

There is ALWAYS hope.

Yeah I mean look our symptoms are a bugger at the best of times.

I can get angry, anxious, miserable, loud, obnoxious but yeah I work on strategies of Self Awareness in order to mitigate these symptoms around those I love. I dont always get it perfect but hey I tried and I will keep trying.

Self reflection helps heaps for me too.

I can't continue to make the same mistakes.

If I speak too loudly to my partner because I am feeling irritation and impatient because of mania?

I learn the lesson.

I've told him to give him the heads up - when I start to feel this impending sense of irritation and irritability and he's trying to have a conversation with me and it's more than I can handle, I simply state - "I can not have this conversation with you right now. Please give me a few minutes. I will come back to you in a few minutes."